Séighin Ó Ceallaigh

Sturgeon May Have Jumped Before She Was Pushed   For almost a decade Nicola Sturgeon had led her party, the SNP, and the Scottish Parliament, but today she has announced her resignation. It has come to a shock to most, considering the SNP’s dominance in Scotland, but tougher times were ahead for her and her party. It is admirable of her to stand down for the sake of her party, as she told the media, but why exactly did she feel the need to have the SNP select a new leader? For the last few months the Labour surge has arrived north of the border, and it has been at the expense of the SNP, though they should comfortably retain their political prominence in the next Westminster election next year, and the Scottish election in 2026. However, their dominance will be dented if polling is anything to go by. Go back a year or so, and both Labour and the Conservatives were hovering around the 20% mark, often in the high teens; while the SNP saw many polls where they exceeded 50% support. No...

  Varadkar & Martin Will Be Cautious Of Green Pact   In the lead up to the 2020 General Election, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were neck and neck in the polls, both vying for the leadership of the nation, hopeful that it would not require the other to do so, not in terms of a coalition at least. That did end up playing out, with Fianna Fáil narrowly beating Fine Gael in terms of seats. What was unanticipated however, was that Sinn Féin would elect the most TDs. The hopes of another ‘confidence and supply’ agreement, possibly with the reversal of roles, were dashed, and FF and FG were forced to go into government with each other for the first time in both of their histories. They didn’t exactly form a government based on leading parties, with the role of Taoiseach rotating between the two party leaders. There was a minor party in government with them though, the Green Party, who look set to face the ‘smaller government party’ slump in the next general election, possibl...

  With deer-season well underway, many Irish hunters are out and about harvesting food for their families, but as is evident in recent weeks, the numbers aren’t nearly high enough. Across Ireland local politicians and community activists have made their voices heard in relation to the problem of the overpopulation of deer. It’s a pity that these politicians, and particularly national ones, didn’t seem to care about the creation of this problem during the Covid-19 lockdowns, where this story begins. One of the most bizarre rules enforced by the government, was that it was illegal to hunt during hunting season, the one time per year when deer numbers can be lowered. Today we see the effects of prohibiting the annual opportunity to keep our deer population under control. Ireland has no natural predators, and thus it is up to the hunters of Ireland to manage our deer population. The benefits of management are not just to protect our national food supply and agricultural sector, nor...

  With the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Green Party coalition now entering its third year of a maximum five-year term, many are of the opinion that the trio will ride out the rather undesirable polling figures and wait until the last possible moment to call another general election. Another common opinion is that an election will be called in the second half of 2024, how late in that half dependent on the results of the European and Local elections in May of that year. Both valid points, particularly the latter; a bumper budget in October, semi-decent canvassing weather, and pre-empting the inevitable winter healthcare crisis, all make for a workable scenario for the government parties. However, strategically speaking, taking those points and applying them to October 2023 may make more sense for Martin, Varadkar, and Ryan, should they be willing to gamble their final year of the term for the prospects of another five-year stint running Leinster House. Despite current polling having ...

  Elitism Prevails   In 2013 the people of Ireland voted to retain our second house of democracy, Seanad Éireann; but it was a narrow victory and was predicated by a general understanding that the Irish electorate wanted to see this pathetic resemblance of democracy to be seriously reformed. Nine years later, that elitism that was promised to be rid from our flawed democracy is still thriving. Next month, March 2022, we will see a by-election for a Seanad seat that was vacated by the Labour Party’s Ivana Bacik when she was elected to the only truly democratic house in the state, Dáil Éireann. But despite an electorate in the millions, only some 60,000 people will be granted the privilege of voting; graduates from Trinity College Dublin, an institute with a deep history of elitism and sectarianism. Of the sixty seats in the Seanad, graduates of TCD have the privilege of voting for three of those Seanadóirí, and the combined institutes that form the National Universities...

  DUP First Minister Paul Givan has announced his upcoming resignation as FM, resulting in the automatic resignation of his Sinn Féin counterpart, Michelle O'Neill, and bringing forward the prospect of an early election. It appears to be a co-ordinated and meticulously planned attempt to derail ongoing Brexit negotiations, which could see a permanent customs border in the Irish Sea. Firstly, DUP Minister for Agriculture, Edwin Poots, who himself is desperately trying to save his political career after failing to gain the party nomination in South Down for the next election, issued an order for checks to end on goods coming from Britain. It was a move with little substance, and wouldn’t take much of a legal challenge for it to be overruled. But the DUP didn’t hang around on this issue, and almost immediately used it as an excuse to trigger the collapse of the Northern Assembly, a last-ditch attempt to save the DUP, who are being closely chased by two other unionist parties in th...

They say a rising tide lifts all boats, and this may be a saying that will apply to minimum unit pricing in the near future. Minimum unit pricing will mean that you'll be hard pushed to find a can of beer for less than €2, and a bottle of spirits for less than €25, based on their percentages of alcohol. Even when buying bulk offers, the price won't dip much below the mentioned prices. Already, just days after the introduction of MUP, prices are exceeding the mandatory minimum, unsurprisingly. While in a supermarket doing some shopping, I took a detour into the segregated alcohol section, only to find 6,8, and 12 packs quite a bit above the MUP. The only value I found, and I use that term lightly, was with full slabs and boxes of 20 bottles. Then I took a turn into the spirits section, cheaper own brands had disappeared, and as a regular whiskey drinker, I noticed that the prices had risen sharply over the past week. A bottle of my beloved Jameson now just shy of €30...